1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sensor and a measuring apparatus, and in particular to a sensor and a measuring apparatus for measuring biological information on a user using a reagent.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, in the field of medical analysis, a disposable analyzer in which a sample is supplied to a sensor has been widely used, due to ease of handling. For example, with a small mobile blood glucose meter, blood that serves as a sample is introduced by suction into a capillary formed in a small strip-like sensor, and reacts with a reagent that has been provided inside the sensor in advance. Moreover, an electric current value is measured by electrochemically measuring a reagent component that has reacted with glucose in the blood, and the measured electric current value is applied to a calibration curve to calculate a blood glucose level. Also, the blood glucose meter displays the calculated blood glucose level on a screen or the like.
Increase in usage of such a sensor has been accompanied by user demand for improvement in the usability of the sensor. For example, Japanese Patent No. 4085137 (Patent Document 1) discloses a measuring apparatus that includes a light source that illuminates a portion of a sensor to which a sample is supplied in order to easily supply the sample to the sensor in a dark place.
Also, for example, JP 2012-18010A (Patent Document 2) discloses a measuring apparatus (a blood glucose meter) that causes a display to display a glucose level in blood, and that emits light of a color corresponding to the glucose level from a backlight of the display at the same time. It is conceivable that according to the measuring apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, a user is able to immediately know whether his or her blood glucose level is normal, and therefore, usability will be significantly improved.
However, in the case where the measuring apparatus is a blood glucose meter, the user is usually a patient suffering from diabetes and often has poor eyesight, and thus, usability of the measuring apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is not sufficiently improved.
On the other hand, according to the measuring apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, although usability is significantly improved, it is necessary to use a backlight that can emit light of a plurality of colors as a backlight of the display. Therefore, the measuring apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2 is problematic in that the manufacturing cost is high.